Snooker: Imran survives to stay in contention

Asjad, Shahid also earn hard-fought victories at ranking snooker event.

KARACHI:

Top-seed Imran Shahzad clinched a 4-2 win against Qasim Kamani to keep his chances alive at the third Jubilee General Insurance Ranking Snooker Championship being held at the Karachi Gymkhana.

Imran, who suffered a shock 4-1 loss to unseeded Farrukh Usman in his first match, was made to fight hard by Kamani as well before the country’s number one cueist prevailed in the encounter.

Kamani took the first frame 86-1, aided by a break of 67. Imran failed in the second frame as well as the unseeded cueist stretched his lead to 2-0, winning 69-29 in quick time. However, the pre-tournament favourite hit back, winning the third frame 66-29.

Displaying perfect potting, Imran then won the next frames 77-39, 69-23 and 73-20 to claim his first victory in the tournament.

“I am happy with the win,” Shahzad told The Express Tribune. “I had a poor start but this win has lifted my confidence.”

Aftab, Iqbal register close wins

Meanwhile, former national champions Shahid Aftab and Asjad Iqbal also registered hard-fought wins.

Aftab beat Zahoor Ahmed 4-3, winning the first frame 80-1 before going down in the following two 63-36 and 65-53.

However, Aftab levelled the match in the fourth frame, winning 68-52 before Ahmed regained the lead with a 67-51 win in the next frame. However, Aftab came back strongly to win the last two frames 68-18, 69-18.

Meanwhile, Iqbal also had to work hard for his 4-2 win over Naveen Perwani who won the first frame. However, Iqbal fought back to win the following three frames 46-36, 70-35, 56-15. Pervani won the next one 52-8 but Iqbal clinched the sixth frame 86-49 to seal the win.

Khurram Agha, Sultan Mohammad, Mohammad Imran and Faisal Kashmiri also  recorded wins on the second day.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2011.